Islam and Liberal Citizenship

The Search for an Overlapping Consensus

Andrew F. March

Winner of the American Academy of Religion's Constructive-Reflective Studies Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion

''In his work, Islam and Liberal Citizenship: The Search for an Overlapping Consensus, Andrew March has provided a rare, much needed, rigorous, and admirable foray into a subject on which there has been much discussion, but not much of it very good. March is ideally suited to the task of discussing the compatibility of Islam with the demands of political liberalism, as an Oxford trained political scientist who has devoted years of his life to the study of that vast body of norms and rules derived from Muslim sacred texts known as the shari'a. There are few who are able to discuss Islam, or political liberalism for that matter, as thoroughly as March, and all of us interested in the subject should be grateful for the contribution he has provided.'' --Journal of Law and
Religion

Islam and Liberal Citizenship

The Search for an Overlapping Consensus

Andrew F. March

Description

How can Muslims be both good citizens of liberal democracies and good Muslims? This is among the most pressing questions of our time, particularly in contemporary Europe. Some argue that Muslims have no tradition of separation of church and state and therefore can't participate in secular, pluralist society. At the other extreme, some Muslims argue that it is the duty of all believers to resist Western forms of government and to impose Islamic law. Andrew F. March is seeking to find a middle way between these poles. Is there, he asks, a tradition that is both consistent with orthodox Sunni Islam that is also compatible with modern liberal democracy? He begins with Rawls's theory that liberal societies rely for stability on an ''overlapping consensus'' between a
public conception of justice and popular religious doctrines and asks what kinds of demands liberal societies place on citizens, and particularly on Muslims. March then offers a thorough examination of Islamic sources and current trends in Islamic thought to see whether there can indeed be a consensus. March finds that the answer is an emphatic ''yes.'' He demonstrates that there are very strong and authentically Islamic arguments for accepting the demands of citizenship in a liberal democracy, many of them found even in medieval works of Islamic jurisprudence. In fact, he shows, it is precisely the fact that Rawlsian political liberalism makes no claims to metaphysical truth that makes it appealing to Muslims.

Islam and Liberal Citizenship

The Search for an Overlapping Consensus

Andrew F. March

Table of Contents

Introduction: Moral Conflict, Political Liberalism, and Islamic EthicsPart I: Justificatory Comparative Political Theory: The Search for Overlapping Consensus through ''Conjecture,''1. Purposes: The Place of Justificatory Comparative Political Theory2. Methods: The Ethics of Comparative EthicsPart II: Islam and Liberal Citizenship: Patterns of Moral Disagreement and Principled Reconciliation3. Islamic Objections to Citizenship in Non-Muslim Liberal Democracies4. Identifying Equilibrium: An Ideal-Typical Islamic Doctrine of CitizenshipPart III: Islamic Affirmations of Liberal Citizenship5. Residence in a Non-Muslim State6. Loyalty to a Non-Muslim State7. Recognition of Non-Muslims and Moral Pluralism8. Solidarity with
Non-MuslimsConclusion: Tradition and Creativity in Grounding Moral Obligation to Non-MuslimsNotesBibliographyIndex

Islam and Liberal Citizenship

The Search for an Overlapping Consensus

Andrew F. March

Author Information

Andrew F. March is Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University

Islam and Liberal Citizenship

The Search for an Overlapping Consensus

Andrew F. March

Reviews and Awards

"March puts forward a historically expansive scholarly tour de force on the question of the compatibility of Islamic law with the demands of liberal citizenship in the context in which Muslims are living as a minority in a non-Muslim state...the book is an absolutely indispensible addition."--Journal of Religion

"As well as those in good governance generally, I recommend this excellent work for those studying political science, inter-religious relations, or Islamic studies, particularly at higher tertiary level."--American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences